Reading and writing have become a way of coping with the sudden and completely unexpected death of my son, Joshua, at the tender age of seventeen. He took his life on March 18, 2009. From that day on, my life will never be the same.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

I have found solace in many types of books: those written for survivors of suicide, for parents who have lost a child, for those who look to writing as a way of coping, memoirs and even fiction. The number in parenthesis is the rating given to the book. I use the GoodReads system.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

The number in parenthesis is the rating given to the book:
1 - didn't like it
2 - it was OK
3 - liked it
4 - really liked it
5 - amazing

Similar to last year, reading has been varied and eclectic.

FINALLY - able to say that I have read Moby Dick (and a number of supplemental books), Charles Dickens and Plato (loved The Apology of Socrates).

After reading Kondo's two books, I have KonMaried my entire closet and dressers (oops, except for jewelry). This was 11 months ago and my closet is still tidy.

Had planned to read entire Virginia Woolf's oeuvre in chronological order by following her well documented life in nephew Quentin Bell's biography but got bogged down and stopped.

I started and stopped quite a few books - just lost interest or got distracted with another book. As my husband says, "it's a free country," meaning I can do whatever I want/need to do.

It was a book/movie year....either watching the movie first then racing through the book (The Big Short) or reading the book then watching the movie (Me Before You, Into Thin Air and The Secret Life of Bees). Interestingly, I did not want to watch the movie after reading The Girl on the Train or In the Heart of the Sea.

Books were connected to traveling this year. For example, I picked up Gun, Germs and Steel at Reagan National Airport on the way to Costa Rica and read on the plane, even though I had brought plenty of other books to read....go figure. I bought Being Mortal while in Coronado, CA for work and read at the airport while waiting for my return flight, sobbing. I read Walden during summer vacation at Stratton Mountain, VT - on the deck of my brother's condo, surrounded by nature. Moby Dick came with me to the beach on Cape Cod.....perfection would've been if I were on Nantucket Island.

Got back into poetry by reading the perfect anthology for a novice - 100 Classic Poems. I especially liked poems from the Romantic poets.

Based on my daughter's recommendation, I read and enjoyed Pierce Brown's trilogy - cross between Hunger Games and Ender's Game.

Read one grief memoir which I did not like - at all.

Have gotten in the habit of watching YouTube author interviews after I have finished the book.

Finished the year back on the path of mindfulness and meditation - I fell off the wagon most of the year...not sure why. Time to get back on.

January

The Penguin History of the World by J.M. Roberts and O.A Westad (4 so far) - unfinished

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (5+)

Lysistrata by Aristophanes (4)

Andromache by Euripides (4)

Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World by John O'Donohue (5)

February

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (5)

Spark Joy by Marie Kondo (5)

The Big Short by Michael Lewis (4) after seeing movie

When Breathe Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (5)

The Trojan Women by Euripides (4)

Hecuba by Euripides (4)

The Histories by Herodotus (4 so far) - unfinished

March 2016

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (5) saw movie afterwards

Virginia Woolf: A Biography by Quentin Bell (4 so far) - unfinished

H is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald (4)

April

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (4)

The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf (3+)

House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (4)

May

Unnatural Causes by P.D. James (3+)

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (5+)

Shroud For A Nightingale by P.D. James

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (4+)

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (4)

Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting and Living with Books by Michael Dirda (4)

June

Only Spring: On Mourning the Death of My Son by Gordon Livingston (1)

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes (5) and movie

The Vegetarian by Han Kang (3)

After You by JoJo Moyes (4)

Night and Day by Virginia Woolf (4)

Howard's End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill (3)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (4)

July

A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (4) - reread

Walden by Henry David Thoreau (4 so far) - unfinished

A Hero of France by Alan Furst (3)

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (5+)

A Certain Justice by P.D. James (4)

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick (4)

Paris Review Interviews Vol II (4)

Melville in Love by Michael Sheldon (2)

Paris Review Interviews Vol III (4)

Why Read Moby Dick by Nathaniel Philbrick (4)

Essay: How Should One Read a Book? by Virginia Woolf (5)

Essay: Modern Fiction by Virginia Woolf (5)

August

The Apology of Socrates by Plato (5+)

Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books by Nick Hornby (4)

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (4)

Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf (3)

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (4)

The Classic 100 Poems edited by William Harman (5)

September

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (5)

Crusade in Europe by Dwight D. Eisenhower (4 so far) - unfinished

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (5) and movie

The Works of Anne Bradstreet (5) poetry collection

Various poems by Romantic poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Keats

October

Don Juan by Lord Byron (4 so far) - unfinished

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (5)

Red Rising (#1 in trilogy) by Pierce Brown (4)

November

Golden Son (#2) by Pierce Brown (4)

Morning Star (#3) by Pierce Brown (4)

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (5 so far) - unfinished

The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough (5)

S.P.Q.R A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (4 so far) - unfinished